RIVERSIDE – One of three men accused of gunning down a 24-year-old Moreno Valley man in an apparent robbery in May pleaded not guilty Monday to murder and other charges.

Anthony Joseph Gonzales, 31, is charged with first-degree murder and a sentence-enhancing allegation of killing someone in the course of a robbery in the May 18 shooting of Juan Gonzalez.

Gonzales appeared Monday before Riverside Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Cahraman, who set a felony settlement conference in the matter for Sept. 9.

Gonzales' alleged cohorts – Robert Gonzales Castro, 29, of San Bernardino, and Steven Ray Eynon, 22, of Fontana – are jailed in San Bernardino County in an unrelated homicide in Fontana, according to authorities.

The victim was shot in the 24000 block of Atwood Avenue in Moreno Valley that Sunday night during what witnesses described as a confrontation between Gonzalez and several men. Riverside County sheriff's deputies who responded to the shooting found the victim in the street near his Ford Thunderbird.

How investigators identified the defendants was not disclosed.

Gonzales, who court records indicate is a two-strike felon, remains locked up without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.